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The fishing rights promised to the Pacific Northwest’s Native Americans 160 years ago are proving the sharpest knife the region's environmentalists possess. So far in 2016, these rights have undergirded decisions to block two planned terminals to ship coal to Asia. Another decision could cost Washington state a billion dollars in highway repairs aimed at protecting salmon.

A team at Stanford created an interactive website to shed light on the money the federal government has paid to counties and states in the American West over time in turn for controlling parts of their lands.

For decades, landowners were free to pump water from under their land at will. Now a landmark 2014 law sets up new bosses to call the shots on who gets groundwater, when and how much. And it is maps that will influence how the competition for control evolves.

A major land-use decision still sits on the president's desk: a coalition of five Native nations wants to make 1.9 million acres of southeastern Utah, around the Bears Ears butte, a new National Monument. We share four competing viewpoints.

The tribally led Bears Ears National Monument proposal presents an historic opportunity for President Obama to fulfill his legacy of honoring our nation’s incredible diversity through conservation of public lands. In the process, Bears Ears may have something profound to teach all Americans about healing through listening.

The Bears Ears region, home to some of our nation's earliest antiquities, can open the eyes of people who want to learn about a past that is older than what is usually taught, and if protected, can help create a more informed national citizenry.

I cherish it beyond words, and my entire adult life has been devoted to trying to get people to appreciate and protect it. It has therefore come as a small disappointment to the promoters of a Bears Ears National Monument designation that I have not climbed on board their crusade.